While the firm still hopes to grow further through lateral hires, reduced demand in a changing legal market is requiring the firm to do more with less, since increasing rates was not realistic, said its president, Christopher Gibson. He called the layoffs “the most difficult thing I have done.”

Seven associates and seven nonequity partners got pink slips. They work in offices in Haddonfield, Hackensack, Flemington and Princeton, N.J., as well as Philadelphia. Most of the eight paralegals and 19 secretaries and file clerks are in Haddonfield. The layoffs will bring the ratio of lawyers to secretaries from 2:1 to 4:1, which is now standard, Gibson said.